Protocols for Investigating - BONUS LESSONS!
Investigation PrepAlways use clean, new discs for your camcorder or digital camera. If your camera uses a memory stick, make sure that is cleaned and ready to go as well. Power up! Charge your batteries that you can and replace the ones you can’t with fresh batteries. Don’t forget to pack back up batteries for your equipment. It only takes one greedy ghost to float by you and zap your equipments’ battery power.
Make sure you dress comfortably. Wear sneakers for better footing. Pockets are a must! At the NJGHS, we use fisherman vests purchased at WalMart for about $15.00. These are lightweight, go over a bulky sweatshirt and provide tons of pockets to store batteries, discs, audio recorders, cameras, etc. There’s even a clip to attach the Thermal Scanner and/or flashlight to!
Test your equipment before you leave for the investigation. Make sure the battery levels are good, flashes work, etc. Remember to pack a pen, notepad, and your ID (ghost hunter business cards, NJGHS Membership card, and Driver’s license)
Tie back long hair on an investigation to prevent a false vortex. It only takes one strand of human hair to fall in front of the camera lens to create a perfect vortex.
On the Investigation – Making a Great TeamIt’s always best to keep your team to about 5 people for private in-home investigations. You don’t want to show up at someone’s house with a huge entourage and overwhelm them since they’re probably on overload as it is with the activity they’re experiencing.
Appoint a Team Leader. The Team Leader is the one who will be in contact with the home owner or business owner, coordinate the team members and their responsibilities, and collect the data from each member into a comprehensive Report of Findings.
Team Members should consist of the following:
Digital Audio (EVPs)
Digital Video
Digital Still Camera
35mm Camera
Thermal Scanner
EMF (Electromagnetic Field Strength Meter)
Historical Researcher
Each team member can employ all their “gadgets” on the investigation, but at the end of the day they are responsible for their review and submission of their particular responsibility’s task to the Team Leader.
Private Investigations
Before you arrive at the home, advise the contact person there to have prepared a “Chronology of Events”. This report will help set the timeline from when they first noticed something “not quite right” right up until you’re walking through their front door. Basic Agenda of an Investigation:
Complete a basic questionnaire to establish a baseline of each individual living in the household. You can make up your own form or ask to be sent one with your NJGHS membership.
Interview the homeowner and review the Chrono of Events
Walk-thru – the homeowner should take you on walk through of the house to point out the places he/she just detailed their experiences about in the interview
Team Leader decides who stakes out what and where and sets the time as to when the team will either switch places or reconvene in the agreed central location.
Pack and Go! Don’t over stay your welcome. Obviously if you’re getting a ton of activity, then you want to stay longer than usual, but if it’s an orb here and there, then pack it in at the 1.5 hour mark. Remember, the more you record, the more you have to review. Reviews can be mind-numbing and arduous in and of themselves.
Stick to plan. Team Members should get their findings to the Team Leaders within a week of the investigation so that the Team Leader can safely make the two week deadline of turning in a Report of Findings to the owner.
This time period is also when the Historical Researcher kicks in to gear and researches any information on the land, building itself, the owners, the local history, tragedies, you name it. Sometimes something in the history of the place syncs up with the paranormal activity.
Final Note for InvestigatingDon’t get so excited that you start researching the history of the place before you arrive. It’s best to show up as a blank slate and collect the data. If you go with preconceived ideas and theories, you’re not operating from the most objective point of view.
Return to Lesson One to review
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